Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Susan Sipal's blog, Southern Fried Wiccan, is chiefly themed around Harry Potter and the significance of the writing and other aspects of the Harry Potter universe.The appearance of Southern Fried Wiccan is very mystical in a magical enchanting sort of way. The background is a ghostly blue forest and the headline at the top is what seems to be of a most beautiful original design. The text is at just the right size for perfect readability without being too large, and it's black on white so the words absolutely pop.

Each blog post is labeled in large red text that is easily readable. The labels do appear to be consistently longer than one would think. For example: Withholding Backstory to Ensnare Readers' Interest with Example from Harry Potter.In Sipal's post, Withholding Backstory to Ensnare Readers' Interest with Example from Harry Potter, she describes the necessity of holding back vital information about a specific character's background. This is important to do because it leaves the audience wondering, hungry for what the answer might be later. Though it's important to leave some mystery it is also important not confuse the audience with a poor runty amount of information that they have nothing to go off of. They have to find a balance between the two that will leave the audience desperate to flip to the next page for more.There are a few things hyperlinked in red on this post, though not many for this is more of an experience/credible opinion piece of writing. One can tell that the writer is fairly experienced in fiction writing and plot/character development by the use of language.The comments are long, intelligent, and civilized, giving personal opinion and insight on the topic of the post.

This is a very unique and well rounded blog with a lot of interesting view points on Harry Potter and fiction writing. From just a couple of the posts that I read I know that I left more intelligent and more thoughtful than when I began.

Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz on March 24, 1874, in the large city of Budapest, Hungary.

At the age of four his family traveled to the United States where they settled in the town of Applegate, Wisconsin.

When he was nine years old, Erik (now with the spelling Erich) appeared in his first public appearance as a trapeze artist, with the title "Erich, Prince of the Air."

At the debut of his magician career in 1894, Erik Weisz changed his name to Harry Houdini, combining a derivative of his childhood nickname "Ehrie" and Houdini from his idol the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.

Houdini found companionship with the man Jack Hayman, and they worked as partners together for their magic act calling themselves, "The Houdini Brothers." Later Hayman was replaced by Houdini's younger brother Theo.

Houdini's career was hard in the beginning. According to the New York Times he was able to get work in a circus with the title "The Wild Man." He also began working to master card tricks eventually nicknaming himself "The King of Cards."Later in 1894, Houdini met Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, a fellow magician. The two of them married and she replaced Theo in the Houdini Brothers, the duo now named, "The Houdini's."

As Houdini grew and became more famous he became notoriously known for being an escape artist. He was known around the world as "The Handcuff King." Many of his famous tricks include:

Houdini died on October 31, 1926 due to peritonitis from a ruptured spleen. As the story goes, Houdini was famous for being able to take punches to the stomach without injury because of his athletic history. After a night of performing, a college student approached him and asked if the rumors about his stomach were true. When Houdini said yes, the student then punched him in the stomach multiple times without warning. Because he was unable to prepare his stomach muscles for the punches, Houdini suffered from great pain. The story then goes that the punches from the college student were the reason for his spleen to rupture, therefore responsible for his death.